


You Left Your Mark On Me

by nerdwegian



Series: Tumblr Prompts [22]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Tumblr Prompt, bonus high school/college au i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-24
Updated: 2014-05-24
Packaged: 2018-01-26 09:45:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1683860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdwegian/pseuds/nerdwegian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"What if--what if my Mark never comes in?" Clint says quietly.</p>
<p>(Tumblr prompt: Matching soulmate markings.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Left Your Mark On Me

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Laura for the beta!

Clint's got a bloody nose and a black eye when Phil pulls up to the curb. Sticking his head out the window, Phil sighs deeply in his best imitation of his mom. "You know you won't be able to hide this from Mrs. Falk," he says, and only belatedly realizes that it sounds like a threat of punishment. That's not at all what he intended. Clint's foster family will almost definitely ground him for fighting, but they're good people.

"At least I didn't get detention," Clint says sullenly, picking up his backpack and walking around the car.

"Hospital or the house?" Phil asks, already knowing the answer.

"The house," Clint mumbles as he climbs into the front seat, not looking at Phil. He doesn't like it when Phil calls it _home_.

"Seat belt," Phil reminds him gently, before driving off. They sit in silence for a while, Clint staring sightlessly out the passenger side window. There are some blood droplets on the front of his shirt, probably from his nose. At least Phil hopes they're from his nose.

"Why do you let those assholes goad you?"

Clint doesn't answer.

After a few minutes, Phil tries changing tactics. "If Mrs. Falk will let you, you wanna come over for dinner tonight? My mom's making meatloaf."

"Nah," Clint mumbles, then adds, as an afterthought, "Thank you, though."

"Yeah," Phil agrees, "I'd probably stay away from that too, if I could. My mom's nice, but her cooking is pretty hit or miss. She does a pretty decent lasagna though, I can't remember if you've ever tried it?"

"I turn eighteen this year," Clint says, still not looking at Phil.

Phil stops talking, just waiting for Clint to go on at his own pace. Clint's like this. He can't be pushed too hard.

"What if--what if my Mark never comes in?" Clint says quietly. "What if I'm a Dud."

"First of all, that's offensive, don't say Dud," Phil says, "and second of all, you're not a Blank. Your Mark will show up, I promise you. And third, people do actually settle down with non-matches, you know. Blanks marry and have kids and all that--stuff." Phil waves a hand loosely in the air.

Clint doesn't move his head, just stares resolutely out the window. "Everyone else has their Mark," he says, and sounds sullen. "You've had yours for years."

Phil's lips thin. He thinks about the little mark that had appeared on the inside of his wrist just after he turned fourteen; the little circle with a small triangle floating to the left, that means somewhere out there, he has a soulmate. "Everyone's different," he says tersely.

Clint's head turns then, and he looks sideways at Phil. "You really don't care about your Mark?"

Phil keeps his eyes on the road. "I really don't."

Clint stares at him for so long Phil's starting to feel self-conscious. "Why?" he finally asks.

"You know why," Phil says, but still goes through his list, because it's Clint. "Marks just--make it easier. But relationships can work even if they're not the _easiest_. And what the hell do you do if your soulmate turns out to be a jackass? You don't wanna get stuck Bonded to someone who's an asshole, or worse, abusive. I don't want my dating prospects to be limited to--fate or whatever. I want to date someone because I'm attracted to them, not because they have a matching Mark."

Clint snorts. "Like your dating prospects are so great anyway, dork."

Phil bites back the snarky response, just in case it'll cut deeper than intended right now, but he's secretly very pleased Clint's making friendly jabs at him.

"I'm not looking for anyone right now, that's all," Phil says. "Busy with college." Well, that, and he's also head over heels for Clint, but Clint doesn't need to know that.

"You're so weird," Clint says, but he's smiling as he says it. Even behind his bruised face he's handsome, and not for the first time Phil imagines that he sees something more in Clint's gaze. The way he looks at Phil sometimes, fondly and significantly... Phil considers again, just for a split second, asking Clint out, but then dismisses the idea immediately--just like he's done a thousand times before.

With his luck, Clint would say yes, and then immediately get his Mark and dump Phil's sorry ass to find his _real_ soulmate.

"Just keep checking," Phil assures Clint. "Your Mark will show up, I'm sure."

Clint snorts again. "With my luck it'll show up somewhere I can't discover it on my own. Like up my ass."

Phil fights the heat rising in his cheeks. "I don't think anyone's ever actually had their Mark appear up their ass," he says.

"How would you know?" Clint teases, but Phil's saved from trying to come up with a comeback, because just then they reach the Falks' house. Phil pulls up to the curb and then idles, one hand on the gear shift.

Clint looks out the window and sighs heavily. "Time to go face the music."

"Let me know how long you get grounded for," Phil says, giving Clint a sympathetic smile.

"With my luck, they'll send me back," Clint says with an eyeroll, and even though it sounds like a joke, Phil's heart _aches_ because he knows there's a part of Clint that genuinely believes that the Falks could send him back into the system at any moment.

"Clint..."

"I know, I know," Clint mumbles, looking a little ashamed. "They wouldn't."

They sit in silence for a few seconds before Clint gathers up his backpack from the footwell and opens the door. "Thanks for coming to get me, Phil. I'll see you around."

"No problem," Phil says--and then promptly chokes on air.

Clint's turned sideways towards the passenger door, head ducked as he fumbles with the straps of his backpack, and it's pulled the neckline of his hoodie down a little. At the nape of his neck, right where his hairline begins, there it is. Unmistakable. A circle, with a triangle floating to the left.

Phil feels like he can't breathe all of a sudden. On reflex, he glances down at his wrist, at the Mark there, and then back up at the matching Mark on Clint's skin.

"Bye," Clint says, getting out of the car.

"Wait!" Phil blurts out before Clint can close the door, leaning over into the passenger seat so he can look properly at Clint.

Clint pauses, puzzled, while Phil's brain is frantically trying to come up with something to say. Anything!

"I just," Phil starts, "there's a--there's," and then he pauses again, thinking hard about Clint and remembering all of Clint's fears and thoughts, and all of his _own_ fears and thoughts, and suddenly he knows exactly what to say.

When he speaks again, his voice is calm and unwavering, and with every word, confidence surges in him. "I just want you to know, that I've liked you for a long time, Clint. And all the Marks in the world don't affect or change how I feel about you one way or another, okay? And I don't expect anything from you, and I don't need anything from you. I just want you to know that this isn't new."

Clint's eyebrows shoot up in surprise, and his black eye twitches, but Phil feels like an anvil has been lifted off his chest.

"You're the most amazing person I've ever met," he tells Clint honestly, unable to hold back his smile when he adds, "and your Mark just came in."

For several long moments, Clint just stands there, stunned. Phil waits patiently, and then laughs when Clint's expression finally slides from one of shock to understanding.

"Is it--is it yours?" Clint asks, sounding like he already knows the answer, but terrified of being wrong.

"It's mine," Phil confirms happily.

A wide smile spreads across Clint's face then, bigger and more open than Phil's ever seen, and Phil's entire _world_ brightens several notches.

End.


End file.
